Parent Stress Management Training for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Lee Treacy, Gail Tripp, Amanda Baird University of Otago This study assessed the effectiveness of a targeted 9-week parent stress management program (PSM) on the parenting stress, mood, family functioning, parenting style, locus of control, and perceived social support of parents of children diagnosed with DSM-IV ADHD. Sixty-three parents from 42 families were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions: immediate treatment or wait-list control. Results of the ran- domized control trial showed that for mothers, completion of the PSM program was accompanied by significant reduc- tions in parent-domain parenting stress together with sig- nificant improvements in parenting style (verbosity, laxness, overreactivity). For fathers, completion of the program was associated with a reduction in verbosity only. Anonymously completed consumer satisfaction questionnaires demon- strated a high degree of satisfaction with the PSM program. ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) is a chronic and debilitating disorder affecting 3% to 5% of school-aged children (Amer- ican Psychiatric Association, 1994). Children with ADHD exhibit persistent and developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity that place them at risk for academic failure, social interaction difficulties, and significant behavioral disturbances. There is a growing aware- ness that ADHD also negatively affects the function- ing of parents of children with this disorder. It is well documented that the mothers of chil- dren with ADHD experience elevated levels of stress in their parenting roles compared with the mothers of normal children (e.g., Anastopoulos, Guevremont, Shelton, & DuPaul, 1992; Baker, 1994; S. J. Beck, Lee Treacy is now at Youth Specialty Services Health Care Otago. Amanda Baird is now with the Department of Corrections, Wellington. This research was supported by grants from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the Child Protection Trust Otago. Address correspondence to Gail Tripp, Department of Psychol- ogy, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand; e-mail gtripp@psy.otago.ac.nz. BEHAVIOR THERAPY 36, 223-233, 2005 005-7894/05/0223-023351.00/0 Copyright 2005 by Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy All rights for reproduction in any form reserved. Young, & Tarnowski, 1990; Mash & Johnston, 1983). This elevation in parenting stress begins early (DuPaul, McGoey, Eckert, & VanBrakle, 2001) and appears chronic in nature (Barkley, Fischer, Edelbrock, & Smallish, 1991). There is evidence that fathers of children with ADHD also experience heightened levels of parenting stress (Baker, 1994; Podolski & Nigg, 2001). Parenting stress is generally assumed to arise from characteristics of the parent, the child, and the environment and interactions among these fac- tors (Abidin, 1992, 1995; Fischer, 1990; Mash & Johnston, 1990; Webster-Stratton, 1990). In fami- lies of children with ADHD the characteristics of the child are thought to be the primary contributor to parenting and family stress (e.g., Anastopoulos et al., 1992; Fischer, 1990; Johnston & Mash, 2001; Mash & Johnston, 1990). The core symptoms of the disorder and its associated difficulties make parenting a child with ADHD especially challeng- ing (e.g., Anastopoulos et al., 1992; Fischer, 1990). Maternal and environmental characteristics are also thought to play a role in the elevated parenting stress of mothers of children with ADHD. Fischer (1990) and Anastopoulos et al. (1992) suggest that parental psychopathology, which occurs more fre- quently in ADHD compared with control families, exacerbates parenting stress. Mash and Johnston (1990) propose that maternal cognitions may me- diate stress in the parent-child relationship. They suggest that negative causal attributions, which de- velop in response to ongoing noncompliance and defiance, together with low levels of parenting effi- cacy contribute to parent-child interactive stress. Marital discord and a lack of effective social sup- port have also been linked to elevated parenting stress among the parents of children with ADHD (Fischer, 1990; Johnston & Mash, 2001). Elevated parenting stress is thought to disrupt the parent-child relationship and negatively affect parenting practices in families of normal children (e.g., Abidin, 1992; Belsky, 1984; Rodgers, 1998) and those with ADHD (Anastopoulos et al., 1992; Mash & Johnston, 1990). It is also linked to disrup- tions in parent psychological functioning, including depression, negative attributional style, and reduced